Take a Million Dollar Porsche 918 for a Hot Lap (Video)

One of the hottest cars on sale right now, the Porsche 918 Spyder, takes the idea of a performance hybrid to the extreme. The spec list reads like an engineer’s dream; four-wheel drive, 887 hp, 944 lbs/ft of torque, 211 mph top speed and less CO2 emissions than a Toyota Prius (72 g/km vs 104 g/km).

With options, the Porsche will easily hit a sale price of $1,000,000. Since many of us will not be able to purchase or drive one of these engineering marvels, Porsche has created a video with professional racing driver Patrick Long lapping the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in the 918 Spyder.

Listen closely as it whirrs out of the pits in full electric mode. Justin presses the “Hot Lap” button to devote all of the electricity and gasoline power to making the car as fast as possible. The car has four separate driving modes; electric only, hybrid, sport and track. In track mode with the hot lapping feature enabled, the car was able to lap the Nurburgring in six minutes, 57 seconds.

The Porsche 918 has a removable roof for open-top driving.

For a more technical description and an even hotter lap around a racetrack, watch the video review of the Porsche 918 from Chris Harris below. The 918 Spyder accelerates from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds. That time duplicates the 0-60 of the Bugatti Veyron, which costs twice as much. Not only one of the fastest hybrids in the world, the 918 simply dominates many non-hybrid performance vehicles.

Fast, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly, the Porsche 918 ushers in a new era of performance car engineering. Hybrid supercars will be the wave of the future and Porsche was one of the first to arrive.